Sleep Medicine

If you’ve noticed that you’re often sleepy during the day, have morning headaches, snore heavily, or experience breathing irregularities during sleep, these may be signs of a sleep disorder. In order to help you get the sleep you need and put your best foot forward each day, Perham Health offers a sleep clinic in cooperation with Sanford Health Sleep Disorders Center in Fargo.

Patients are referred to the sleep clinic from their primary provider. If it is determined that a patient would benefit from a sleep study, one is scheduled at the Perham Health sleep clinic or Fargo sleep clinic.

Patients’ sleep is monitored through wires and recording electrodes. These wires send data to a control room where a polysomnographic technologist monitors the information gathered. The technologist is continuously available should a patient require assistance.

The most common diagnosis is obstructive sleep apnea. This occurs when the airway becomes either completely or partially obstructed during sleep, which can cause a person to wake up–often multiple times in a night.

Sleep study patients usually arrive at the sleep clinic around 8:30 p.m. to check in. Patients are ready to leave the clinic by 8 a.m. the next morning.